One PB&J — hold the peanut butter

The old standby of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in the school cafeteria has been replaced — at least in the St. Charles School District.

"Now, it's just jelly," said Wilma Van Arragon, the district's head nurse.

And it's not just beloved PB&Js that are missing from lunchrooms.

Van Arragon said this week that the school has asked its food vendor to avoid all dishes that contain peanuts.

The reason for the peanut prohibition? To protect students who are allergic.

Peanut-free classrooms and lunchrooms have slowly been popping up around the Fox Valley. The Indian Prairie School District, for example, handed down the same edict to their food-service providers several years ago after dozens of parents warned that their allergic children could have dangerous reactions if they accidentally ate peanuts.

National studies have shown that the number of people suffering from food allergies has risen to the highest level ever and that the rate of incidence is especially high in children. With that in mind, local schools have taken steps to reduce the chances that students accidentally will come in contact with whatever product to which they are allergic.

While peanuts aren't banned in the West Aurora School District, students with food allergies (many are allergic to peanuts and milk) are "tagged" so that school lunch personnel know not to serve them particular foods, said Mike Chapin, director of community relations.

On the East Side, said school nurse Mary Gilkey, officials are also trained to treat allergies, but see only a handful of children who react to certain foods, mostly peanuts and fish.

Under the program, the state and network will offer free food allergy education kits, including a video and written information, to about 5,000 K-12 schools and licensed child-care centers statewide. Anne Munoz-Furlong, the network's founder and CEO, said she hopes the program will become a model for other states.

The network estimates that the number of Americans with food allergies has increased in the past five years from 6 million to about 11 million. Of those, about 3 million are children younger than age 18.

Blagojevich's daughter, Annie, is among them, according to a press release.

"These children cannot take care of themselves without other people," Munoz-Furlong said. "The program brings everyone together, explains what their role is and helps them develop a customized plan that will work for their school."

Munoz-Furlong said the $75 kits were paid for by a private grant.

Locally, school nurses said they have received letters asking whether they wanted to join the program but none have signed on yet.

Staff Writer Justina Wang contributed to this report.